Hello!

Long standing Amiga user here. Got a chance, one year ago, to invest some money on a new machine for my collection, compatible with MorphOS. Now, I have just found the time to play with it but I face some problems, I have some questions and I was hoping that someone of you might help me. So, here I go:

I purchased a used PPC Mac Graphite with an upgraded CPU (G4@1.4GHz), upgraded RAM (2GB - 1.3 Available/Free under MorphOS) and Radeon 9200.

The system came pre-installed with MOS 2.7 (unregistered).

First thought: That damn thing is fast (Ambient seems ultra responsive) but I haven't pushed it yet with some 720p movie or benchmark it on Q2/Q3.

Anyway, I face some hardware troubles:
1) Netwrok/Internet doesn't work. Either I get an "error 6" or "error 7" (could not resolve host / could not connect to server). Cable and router work for my SamEP/AOS4.x and my Windows machine. I tried to connect to my router via OWB without any luck and when I connect to my router's interface through Windows, the connection seems down/inactive (also no lights on for the corresponding port of the router when the Mac is connected). What should I do to determine the problem? If the problem persists, could you point me any compatible (hardware and software wise) PCI ethernet card?

2) As far as I understand onboard sound does not work, correct? If yes, could you point me any compatible (hardware and software wise) sound card? Perhaps the old and trusted SB Live is the answer here?

3) Is there a system diagnostic utility? I mean a utility that will list the hardware components of the system. Because I am trying to figure out the amount of VRam on the 9200 but cannot.

4) How can you edit the screenbar to show the values of Free RAM and Free VRAM?

5) What is the best Graphics Card to use with my system? I am gonna use high resolutions (minimum 1280x1024@32bit) so I will require extra amount of VRam (perhaps equal or over 128MB of VRam).

Looking forward to your replies.

For the sound the SBlive will do and for the ethernet a realtek card. Both very cheap nowadays.

I think your Radeon 9200 is sufficient for now.

Hi

1. What's your network setup? Can you give a screenshot? Where do you get that error?

2. Yes, SBLive works well.

3. Utilities/GraphicBoards

4. Rightclick in the right corner of the bar and then you will have a list of modules.

5. I'd say Radeon 9000 with 128MB VRAM but it's quite hard to get a macversion (or expensive). Radeon 9200 will do anyway.

For SB Live! do your homework before purchasing. Make sure the sound chip part number is exact and make sure it is NOT pulled from a Dell. I got one with what I thought was the right chip, but it was not. The dell part is actually much different.

@redrumloa

Link me an e-bay example of what do you mean by "make sure the chip part number is exact". The Dell thing I get it.

@pampers

OK, I will try to take several screenshots and upload them (I get the errors for example when clicking "download OWB fonts" and/or typing an address to OWB). The network connection is typical ethernet cable from Mac to router, router is attached to telephone line via a pstn splitter. Nothing fancy. How I can check whether the network connection is active on MorphOS or not?

> Netwrok/Internet doesn't work. [...] What should I do to determine
> the problem? If the problem persists, could you point me any
> compatible (hardware and software wise) PCI ethernet card?

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7548&forum=11

@Cool_Amigan

Welcome to the dark side }:-D (Evil grin)

To check if your NIC is supported:

From ambient, right click menu:
Settings>System>Network

This will bring up the network configuration settings.

If your ethernet port is supported, then it should appear here. If not, a Realtex RTL8139 PCI card should do fine (perhaps you have one from your classic Amiga days?).

If your router is set up as a DHCP server, just select the "Dynamic IP (DHCP)" radio button. You may still wish to click on the "Host and DNS" tab and enter the relevant information for your network there. Shouldn't be needed if DHCP works correctly, but can't remember tbh.

If you're having trouble with DHCP (or router not set up as DHCP), select the "Static IP address" radio button. You will then have to enter IP address, gateway etc manually. Don't forget to click on the "Host and DNS" tab and enter the relevant information for your network there.

BTW - Thanks to Davey W we also have Envy24HT drivers, so the same high quality cards supported under AROS/OS4 will also work under MorphOS

Hopefully your MorphOS experience with your Powermac will be more satisfying than your OS4/SAM440 experience (as recently recounted on AW.net).

Regards

Rich

[ Edited by boot_wb 02.03.2012 - 18:23 ]

OK, navigate and found this on the network, Driver: sungem_eth_device:0, Version: 50.3 etc with DHCP enabled. Should I consider an RTL ethernet card as the only valid option so as to have network?

The GFX is a 9000 64MB. I will opt for a 128MB version of it in the next days. Is there anything specific I should consider before buying?

Finally, I connected my new Logitech Gaming Laser mouse (G400) and it worked flawlessly (even the button adjusting the dpis work)!

In relation to a gfx card - the best will be looking for a dedicated MAC edition (where u'r from mate?). If you have any soldiering skills, you can go with PC version - have a read: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/

Cool_amigaN,
Quote:
If you didn't do it yet, you should press the "Save" button, otherwise the whole network settings will not be really used and you will be offline.
i.e. MorphOS defaults to being offline.

@Cool_amigaN,

I don't know if you have clarified if your PowerMac is one of those that has a supported built-in Ethernet port, as I do not know what a "Graphite" PowerMac is by model number. If you have a dual boot setup and can still boot into MacOSX (or MacOS9.x) and click the Apple icon in the upper left corner and then choose the "About This Mac" menu item to find out which model number it is, or if you canuse the serial number on the case to find out on the Apple Support site, it will be easier to determine if your Ethernet port is supported.

As for video cards, be careful that any you buy are original Mac versions of the card, unless you are prepared to re-flash the bios (and possibly change the ID number on certain cards that have been re-flashed), so that you can use that PC video card in your PowerMac.

If you do wish to get a cheaper PC video card, I suggest you contact Jim, who is a member here who is gaining a lot of information and expertise, regarding re-flashing video cards for use in Mac computers and also a lot of info about which cards are the best to use with either MacOSX, or MorphOS. He is a great guy that can give you the best advice about video cards for MorphOS. (in fact, I am sending him three of my own video cards to get them re-flashed as soon as I can get them packed up)

Jim is also donating more advanced Radeon video cards to the MorphOS Development Team, so they will have them for future video driver work, when their programming schedule allows the team time to look at improving video performance by supporting more modern video cards, so what Jim is doing will help all of us some time in the future.

Of course no one can say when the Dev. Team will be able to work on any new drivers, if ever, so as usual, follow their recommendations and only buy supported video cards and don't buy anything with the hopes that it will be supported some day, as there is no guarantee that any piece of hardware will be supported, unless you see it announced by the MorphOS Dev. Team themselves, on the official MorphOS website.

Good luck with your system and solving your questions and like I said, the more information you provide about your system the easier it will be for everyone to answer your questions.

> If you have a dual boot setup and can still boot into MacOSX (or MacOS9.x)
> and click the Apple icon in the upper left corner and then choose
> the "About This Mac" menu item to find out which model number it is

MorphOS (Ambient) can show the model number (PowerMac3,1 or PowerMac3,3 in his case) as well.

Good morning! MorphOS boot pic arguments describe my system as PowerMac 3.1 and according to MorphOS hardware compatibility list, the on board ethernet is not supported. As for the Realtek pci card should it be precise RTL8139C or a RTL8139A/B/C will work as well?
For example this or this etc.

@amigadave

OK, thanks for the info. I will try to contact the responsible person and see if anything good comes out of this :)

Hi Cool_amigaN

I see most questions have been answered and network and sound "problems" are due to these features being unsupported in PowerMacs 3,1, but still I may try to give some hints on the other points.
Quote:
For the graphics board details, as suggested, SYS:Utilities/GraphicBoards as already mentioned. For general information about your configuration (including the version of the PowerMac you own), try ShowConfig from Shell.
Quote:
Right click on the screen depth gadget on the upper right corner of the screen, Modules -> Memory .
Quote:
64MB are enough for normal usage at that resolution, but indeed if you want to try "heavier" 3D games without disabling "Enhanced Display", I would suggest a 128MB Radeon 9000. People have already mentioned that it needs to be a Mac version or you need to re-flash it on a PC.

Kind regards,
Andrea

> MorphOS boot pic arguments describe my system as PowerMac 3.1
> and according to MorphOS hardware compatibility list, the
> on board ethernet is not supported

The onboard Ethernet is supported on later PowerMac3,1 machines, so it seems you have an early one.

> should it be precise RTL8139C or a RTL8139A/B/C will work as well?

The answer is contained in the thread I put a link to in my previous posting.

I find it interesting that people are having problems with networking under MorphOS.
I just changed routers and while my PC works fine, I'm not getting a connection with my Quicksilver (nothing at the router).
MorphOS does list the hardware and its addresses so I a little confused.

As a temporary measure, I may add the network card mentioned here (after all its <$6 on Ebay).

@Andreas_Wolf,

Thanks for pointing that out. I have obviously been using MacOSX too much and MorphOS too little lately. Until I get feeling better so I can get out of this bed and sit in a chair, or until the MorphOS Dev. Team releases MorphOS3.0 AND wireless networking, I will be forced to continue using MacOSX instead of any MorphOS version.

@Andreas_Wolf,

Checked again the link you posted. From what I understand both the RTL8139 C and D revision work, without any information for the A and B series. I was a little bit confused because some ppl were referring to them just by naming 8139, without anything else to distinguish them.

@all

To sum up, I need a pci ethernet and a sound blaster. What redrumloa meant by: "Make sure the sound chip part number is exact" regarding the SB Live? For example, will this work?

> From what I understand both the RTL8139 C and D revision work

Yes, that's right.

> without any information for the A and B series.

They should work as well.

> What redrumloa meant by: "Make sure the sound chip part number is exact"
> regarding the SB Live?

Check that thread:
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8215&forum=11

> will this work?

According to the pictures, it has the proper chip.

Jim,
Quote:

I found out some routers really have troubles mixing 10Mbit / 100Mbit connections ... I don't know if that's the case ? I had to buy a new switch a while ago because my 3com hub didn't want to connect my 10Mbit ethernet connection while the other machines were connected at 100Mbit.

Welcome to MOS,

For video, I would recommend the 8500 mac version. Currently the 8500, is the fastest video card for MOS. Even though it is older that the other Radeon cards, it is still faster.

You won't be disappointed, it does a great job playing games.

Make sure you find a 8500, not a 8500LE. The LE is slower than the pure 8500.

>Make sure you find a 8500, not a 8500LE. The LE is slower than the pure 8500.

Although an 8500LE (aka 9100) is still better then a 9000 or 9200.

Update everyone: So, I bought the SB Live and a PCI Ethernet with the RTL8139D chipset on it from eBay yesterday. Those cards will make the Mac/Mos machine fully functional for me. I am looking for some peripherals (like a dedicated laser mouse, a mouse pad and a dvi splitter for my Sam and Mac).

In parallel, I made a small research for the graphics card because I am sure that the 64MB will be a limitation on big resolutions, just like with my Sam. First, I can't understand the prices. Sometimes, they exceed (any model with 128MB and above) the price of a big box and upgraded Mac, lol! Also, from what I can observe there are cards with 256MB (like the 9600 and 9800). AFAIK these cards don't have 3D hardware acceleration on MorphOS. Is it planned for the next release though (3.0)? I don't want to spend around 60 euros on a card only to find out that within the next months I will be able to upgrade again :P